News

Buhari splashes cash rewards on D’Tigress

by Frank Eleanya

August 30, 2017 | 1:11 pm

President Muhammadu Buharion Wednesday received Nigeria’s female basketball team, D’Tigress and announced cash rewards of N1 million each for the players and N500,000 for the officials.

Th team won the 2017 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket tournament in Mali qualifying for the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Spain, on Sunday.

The President made the announcement while receiving them shortly before commencement of the Federal Executive Council meeting.

Buhari who returned to the country penultimate week after spending over 100 days on medical vacation in London, United Kingdom is attending the first cabinet meeting since his return.

In his remarks at the brief ceremony the Minister of Sport, Solomon Dalung said the fortunes of the country in terms of sports have been on the rise since the inception of the Buhari led administration. He quoted from the President’s remarks in 2015 which said “I think Sports love me”.

Meanwhile, the team’s captain, Aisha Mohammed in an interview with newsmen at the State House said the cash reward will spur the girls to go for gold in Spain next year.

Also, the President of Nigeria Basketball Federation, Musa Ahmadu Kida, attributed the success of the team to the democratic process that has returned to the federation, adding that if the team could achieve this result in three weeks of the new executive, they can repeat the same feat in Spain next year.